New York City Day #3

Today was a great day....not as hands-on as the two previous days, but nonetheless important. We had lectures all day today from our professor (he teaches at the City University of New York at Lehman College) on the American Revolution. Since I am pretty familiar with the info from the American Revolution, the teachers all used the time as a chance to share good ways to make history come alive for students - so I got some good ideas! It was also neat to hear another person's thoughts about why certain things occurred during the war and look at events from a different point of view.

A couple of cool facts about the American Revolution Time Period:
  • American Colonists were willing to lose everything for their independence: their homes, their families, their land, their lives!
  • Harvard, Yale, and William & Mary were the first colleges in America; once religions other than Anglican were able to start schools, then Princeton, Rutgers, and Columbia Colleges were founded.
  • An incredible amount of money was made by smuggling goods across the Atlantic Ocean. As you can imagine, this greatly angered the British government.
  • American Colonists had to provide sheets, bedding, food, drink, and candles to any British soldier who simply knocked on their door and asked for it. Who allowed this to happen? King George III gave British soldiers the right to through the Quartering Act. Later, King George III also forced colonists to give up beds in their homes to any soldier who asked. Can you believe that?!
  • America started to have a huge coffee addiction partially when the Tea Act started taxing tea and Abigail Adams started the "Coffee Break," as opposed to "Tea Time."
  • England, thousands of miles away, and across an ocean, had the right, due to the Coercive Acts, to tell all towns in Massachusetts, including our very own Medfield, what they were allowed to discuss at Town Meeting. Imagine the U.S. government telling Medfield residents what they were "allowed" to talk about at Town Meeting today?!

Until tomorrow....keep on thinking and using those brains!

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